(Disclaimer: I'm not trying to boast here, but to suggest a new badge)

So, I got the yearling badge on SO the other day. Normally I'm happy to get badges (and I suppose I'm not unhappy about getting the yearling badge), but it seemed like a bit of a hollow victory to me. Here's why:

I got my silver "Woot!" badge 30 days after joining, and my gold "Fanatic" badge 70 days later. So when I finally got my yearling badge 265 days after getting my "Fanatic" badge, it seemed a little pointless. Certainly this auspicious day of having been active on StackOverflow.com for 365 consecutive days should be recognized with something a bit more than a silver badge that anyone can get for (essentially) signing up and lurking for a year?

In other words:

Can we get a green level badge (or a super-duper gold badge or something) that's "visited the site every day for a year"?

And yes, I suggested this very thing in another thread, but having come upon this milestone, I thought it might be worthwhile to bring it back up into the public's meta-eye.

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1

If you're going to downvote this question (which I don't have a problem with), please have the courtesy to leave a comment and explain why.
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Dave DeLongJun 3 '10 at 21:48

7

@Dave: Downvotes have a different meaning here. It's just a vote of disagreement.
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Daniel VassalloJun 3 '10 at 21:51

2

@Daniel yes, but why do people disagree? Is it a bad idea? If so why? Or is to for some other reason? In other words, I think this is a good idea (hence the question and the discussion tag), but I'm interested in knowing why people think it isn't.
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Dave DeLongJun 3 '10 at 21:55

4

One might have thought an "uber fanatic" would have known that.
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nb69307Jun 3 '10 at 21:56

@Neil known what? that downvotes are "disagreements" or that it's a bad idea?
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Dave DeLongJun 3 '10 at 22:02

4 Answers
4

If it were up to me, all those badges that can be earned by a computer would be removed from the system. I mean, opening the website stackoverflow.com for 100 consecutive days takes no skill whatsoever, yet it results in the same "reward" as an answer with 100+ up-votes.

The badge description does not say you have to be active for 365 consecutive days, and it doesn't define active. So the reality is that you may qualify for the badge when all you do is visit once a week.

The requirement of 200 rep in one year is also quite reasonable - that is 40 upvotes on questions, or 20 upvotes on answers (or maybe just one bounty question). You could almost achieve that rep level by visiting once per month.

that's my point. The yearling badge can be achieved with relatively passive involvement over the course of a year, whereas this badge would definitely require daily involvement.
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Dave DeLongJun 3 '10 at 22:08